[Tour 2005]Stage 14 - Agde - Ax-3 Domaines

[race-report@cyclofiend.com]

Stage 14
Agde - AX-3 Domaines 220 km
A long, hard day in the Pyrenees. Obviously a longer stage, but this
will be toughened by the heat and hilly roads of the region. After that
preamble (hilly meaning four categorized climbs in addition to the
undulations), the riders take on the serious climbs - steeper and
nastier than anything they've dealt with so far this Tour. They will
negotiate the 2000 meter tall Port de Pailheres (15.2 km at 8% average)
and then head up to the finish at AX-3 Domaines (9.1 km at 7.3%)The
final 30 km of this stage will be a cooker.

Very, very hot today.

A bit too warm for Gerben Lowik of Rabobank, who's DNS drops the rider
count to 160 at the start line.

The climbing stage begins with sprints, and Carlos Da Cruz of FDJ.com
leads teammate Phillipe Gilbert and Domina Vacanze's Andriy Grivko
through the first one. He repeats at the second sprint point, but before
he can celebrate too much a breakaway moves out in anticipation of the
smaller climbs on the day. Before you can say "Bobs your uncle", Yuri
Krivstov of Ag2R nicks the first mountain points, followed by Liquigas'
Stephano Garzelli and Bouygues Telecom's Walter Beneteau.

But the Pyrenees bring out the Spanish pride, and Juan Garate sorts out
his timing in the breakaway bunch and flies his Spanish National
Champion Jersey colors first over all the rest of the early climbs

These efforts lead to an early average speed of 44 kph, or 27.6 mph in
old money.

The break has 10 riders who have distanced themselves from the bunch,
and hold somewhere around 9 minutes lead in front of the peleton.

Euskatel-Euskadi works to remind folks that they are still in the race,
appearing in their orange jerseys to try closing down the break as they
ride nearer their home country.

The peleton courses up the tightly forested valley which begins the
climb up to the Hors Categorie Port de Pailheres. They look forward to
15 km of 8% in the oppressive heat. It's interesting to note that this
climb had been categorized as a Category 1 (less than HC) climb when it
was first used in 2003, but has been bumped up in the rankings. The
roads at the summit are so narrow that they've actualy diverted the race
caravan - the parade which includes European equivilents of the Oscar
Meyer Weiner mobile tossing tchotchkes out to the crowds - so they do
not have to potentially skid and stall on the climb.

The break includes:
Danielle Nardello - T-Mobile
Alexandre Moos - Phonak
Juan Garate - Saunier Duval
Walter Beneteau - Bouygues Telecom
Georg Totschnig - Gerolstiener
Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com
Philippe Gilbert - FDJ.com
Yuri Krivtsov - Ag2R
Andriy Grivko - Domina Vacanze
Stephano Garzelli - Liquigas, who is enjoying his birthday today.
and they still hold a 9:22 lead.

Bradley McGee suffering on the first pitches of the climb of the
Pailhere, back among the team cars and asking for a large helium baloon
to tie to his bike.

Garate leads on the initial inclines forcing the pace a bit and then he
sits contentedly with the rest. Alexander Moos moves off the front to
attack the climb, perhaps to become a carrot for a later attack by
teammate Floyd Landis. This causes a bit of a selection, as those who
were born with the hollow bones slide away from those with more normal
physiology.

Now Nardello, Garate, Totschnig and Garzelli move along together,
wondering if they can stay away form any serious fights which might
develop behind them.

Speaking of fights in the bunch, T-Mobile has appeared at the front of
the peleton, driving the pace hard to try to put the pressure onto
Armstrong. They string things out as if it were a sprint stage, riders
peeling off as they tap out their tank. They clearly go hard enough to
put the hurt on. Large quantities of riders find themselves off the back
and painfully reassessing their choice of employment.

Ullrich's boys Guiseppe Guerini and Alexandre Vinokourov drive the pace.
Clear gaps occur behind and Ullrich remains attached to his pace makers.
The T-Mobile threesome are clear of the rest of the bunch. Armstrong
watches for a bit, looks around to see if anyone else wants to cover it,
then decides this is a serious attack and begins grinding out a stong
cadence. He now leads what is now the chase as Vinokourov eases back.
They had moved extremely hard to gain ground on Armstrong. But, he moves
swiftly up and joints them. A little less smoothly and a bit slower, a
group of awakened climbers now slink up to join them.

Serious spoonfuls of pain are being ladeled out already. Ullrich is at
the head of a group of 9 riders. They have isolated Armstrong in this
bunch, but the severed Discovery riders steadily work to rejoin.
Popovych is evident in his White Best Young Rider jersey, but there does
seem to be a dearth of Disco-boys about...

Vinokourov goes again,followed by Basso. Vino drops away from an
increase in pace by the CSC rider. Ullrich moves up to Basso and Andrey
Kashechkin of Credit Agricole joins them to create an escaping group of
four who edge out to 8 or 9 seconds. Lance lags, but does not appear to
be in trouble. Metering his efforts? Tomorrow's stage will be a ripper,
so perhaps he's being a bit careful.

Rassmussen takes a look back and decides he should be up the roadway and
pumps away. Now Armstrong animates his efforts and they reach to
Rassmussen. Mancebo now accellerates. Armstrong moves up and then makes
a serious effort, closing the gap in short order.

Vinokourov has drifted back into the gap as Rassmussen and Mancebo move
up. Vino may be paying a bit for his early accelleations. Cadel Evans of
Lotto has remained involved, following in a group with Rasmussen, Landis
and a struggling Vinokourov.

At the lead of the "heads of state", Ivan Basso ticks along with a
comfortable cadence, Ullrich following him with Armstrong following
along. Riders keep pulsing and then dropping back when the 8% or steeper
grades stab them in the thighs.

Now Vinokourov drifts away for real as Floyd Landis reattaches to the
group. Gerolsteiner/Santa Rosa homeboy Levi Leipheimer struggles to come
back on terms. Stragglers litter the roadway of the climb, and because
of the switchbacks, the steepness and the ultimately limited number of
cameras, disappear from sight.

Beleive it or not, there are still a different set of riders leading the
race - Garzelli and Totschng still move along 4 or 5 minutes ahead of
all these crazy attacks.

Basso sets the pace for Ullrich, Landis and Armstrong. Evans and
Kashechkin could not stay attached and twiddle back a bit, wondering who
put the butter in their legs.Strategic plans of T-Mobile aside, one
occurence has been to put Rasmussen into trouble. He's drifted behind
the Armstrong by about a half a minute. Strategically, this is doing
exactly what Lance wants.

At the head of the race, Totschnig pops the caps off his teeth and puts
a gap on Garzelli, who pours water over his head and tries to fight back
onto his wheel. Garzelli dangles behind the accellerating German.

The chasing quartet swells a bit as Leipheimer attaches to the group.
>From the other direction Alexandre Moos and Danielle Nardello manage to
hold on as they drop back from the original breakaway. Nardello
immediately takes to the front and paces Ullrich on the climb. The
chasing groups negoiate the narrowing roads - almost not enough room for
team cars to slip past. Vino and Kashechkin continue struggling to stick
with the Rasmussen group.

Ok, I'm confused...That's a whole bunch of racing, chasing and blowing
up...To clarify who is where right now:

Totschnig remains off the front

Garzelli chases solo about 30 seconds back

Beneteau hovers behind him. Maybe a minute or two in arrears

Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, Landis and Leipiheimer (although Garate has
drifted back to join them, but doesn't look like he's going to hold on)
roughly 4:15 behind.

Rassmussen, and slightly lumpy-looking Kloden hover almost exactly a
minute behind Armstrong.

Totschnig moves between hordes of flag-waving and "allez!" or
"Venga!"-ing spectators. Orange t-shirts begin showing in bigger numbers
as the Basque fans begin to populate the side of the roadways. He's into
the barriers that straddle the KoM stripe on the roadway, and then
blessed relief of downhill awaits.

Armstrong seems well within himself as he marks the others in his five
person group. Some insane fan in a puffy white jump suit runs alongside
the bunch with dumber cousins waving flags on either side.

Moos tumbles backwards through the second climbing group, 52 seconds
behind right now. Rasmussen, Zubeldia and Kloden move along, having left
Vinokourov to his own devices.

The Armstrong bunch hits the top of the climb and begin the steep
downhill. As they go down the switchbacks, Armstrong drifts easily back
to the team car and takes on water and food from the hand of Team
Sportif Johan Bruyneel. No reason to do something stupid today.

Rasmussen does manage to net some Polka-Dot Jersey points as he pushes
through the high point of the day's stage.

Totschnig forgets that he has brakes as he tries to carry every possible
second to the final climb. He must wonder whether he can stay away if
the attacks begin again behind him.

Downhill we continue, riders pulling their shorts inside out to regain
the Armstrong bunch. The group continues to addd riders back on, but has
fallen to 4:18 behind the hard-charging Totschnig, who is followed still
by the inspired Garzelli and the all-but-invisible-to-the-cameras Walter
Beneteau.

Vinokourov has been testing the adhesion of his tires all the way down
the mountain, but he has to work harder to close that last little bit to
the Armstrong bunch. He finally rejoins the group as they all lean their
bikes hard over into repetitive switchbacks.

Armstrong sits at the back of the 11 strong group. As the roads flatten
for a few seconds at the base of the climb, Vinokourov again hits the
bunch, gapping them as he heads out of the town and onto the first parts
of the climb.

Strangley, Kloden ramps up the pace and immediately closes the gap to
.... his teammate?.... now _that's_ some bizarre planning. Vino dumps
out the back inbshort order and a selection occurs again, with Kloden
leading the bunch, Ullrich glued to his rear wheel, followed by Landis,
Basso, Armstrong and Leipheimer. They aren't quite separating the
others, but they don't quite to be straining as much as those who now
populate the back to the group. Haimar Zubeldia of Euskatel-Euskadi and
Polka-boy Rassmussen are throwing their elbows out a bit to stay stuck.

Zubeldia drifts back, looking like a salty toothless man as he can no
longer hold the pace.

Basso hikes up his chamois and accellerates a bit. Ullrich & Armstrong
follow immediately, while the other two Americans founder for a second
and a small gap appears, hovers, then is closed.

Kloden, Mancebo and Rasmussen cannot stay attached any longer and they
form a slightly less speedy climbing bunch.

The lead bunch sweep up to Beneteau who is all teeth,cheekbones and
punishment as he tries to suck in more air. He fails and falls away.
Leipheimer now realizes he doesn't quite have the gumption. Landis now
gets the wobbly knees and fades back. Basso and Armstrong spur one
another while Ullrich waves back and forth between their wheels.

5 km to go for Totschnig, who holds somewhere around three and a half
minutes over the Armstrong group.

Armstrong kicks up on the inside of the switchback, accellerates
slightly and smoothly while they pass under the 5 km to go banner.
Armstrong takes a hard look as Ullrich and drifts to the back of the
trio for more assessment. I wonder if they've analyzed the images of Jan
to see if he has a "tell" - a vein that stands out on his calf or a
slight dropping of his left heel on the top of the pedal stroke - that
indicates he may be pushing just that much too much...

Garzelli finds himself a member of the Armstrong group, but quickly
finds that the dues in this club are fairly steep.

Klenden struggles and begins to taste his morning muffins, but can not
match the smoother tempo of the two climbers, Rasmussen and Mancebo.

4 km to go on the stage, with Totschnig only 2:10 in front. He's in a
world of pain as the road monkeys run alongside with their
unintelligible chatter and yammering.

Armstrong fires along with the beautiful high cadence that has become
his trademark, with Ullrich a noticeable few beats below him in his big
kachunga gears. The 3 km to go banner flies overhead of them, only 1:50
behind the sole remaining leader. But, Totschnig runs under the 2 km
banner at almost the same moment, and though I hesitate to say it,
things begin to look good for him. The KoM point is actaully a kilometer
to go, so he should be able to stay away as things flatten slightly over
the final bits of this stage.

Ullrich again drives hard, or at least looks like he's driving hard.
Armstrong rises out of the saddle as they negotiate the continuing
ninnified crowds. Armstrong picks up the pace as they finally gain the
protection of the barriers. Ullrich looks to be struggling slightly and
he suddenly falls away as Armstrong lights the afterburners. Basso marks
him, seated and spinning, but clearly able to only follow.

Armstrong swings slightly wide on the outside of a switchback and looks
back to observe the effects of his smooth accelleration. Open water and
Ullrich is not on the same bit of roadway.

Up ahead, Totschnig strangles the drops and finds hiselv out and away,
crossing the line howling with happiness. He'll probably get dinged for
forgetting to zip up his jersey, but as he weeps and whoops with emotion
and has to be held upright on his now-failing legs, it just doesn't matter.

Now Armstrong sprints away from Basso, driving to the line. He neatly
gaps Basso and takes the 12 second bonus for second place, driving
Rasmussen a few more seconds behind him and stamping his authority on
the stage. Ullrich rolls through about 15 seconds back, while another 15
seconds comes the American pair of Landis/Leipheimer, which forgive me,
sounds like a law firm...

Rasmussen finds himself about 45 seconds worse off than when he began
the day, Mancebo leading him to the line. The parade of riders will
easily continue for another half an hour. One question which does come
to mind is of course, "where were the Discovery boys?" Hopefully, they
were focused on maintaining energy for what will be an incredibly hard
stage tomorrow. We shall see.

An emotional Totschnig has propped himself up off of the road and
accepts the trophy and bouquet. He seems reluctant to come down off the
top step, looks at it one more time to fix it forever in his mind, and
steps over to shake hands with Bernard Hinault and the dignitaries who
populate stage right of the inflatable clamshell which serves as the
backdrop to the proceedings.



Stage 14 - Results -
1 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolstiener - 5:43:43
2 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - +:56
3 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +:58
4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +1:16
5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +1:31
6 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - s.t.
7 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - +1:47
8 - Michael Rasmussen - Raboank - s.t.
9 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +2:06
10 - Haimar Zubeldia - Euskatel-Euskadi - +2:20

GC - After 14 Stages
MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 55:58:17
2 - Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +1:41
3 - Ivan Basso - CSC - +2:46
4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +4:34
5 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +4:53
6 - Floyd Landis Phonak - +5:03
7 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - s.t.
8 - Andreas Kloden - T-Mobile - +5:38
9 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +7:08


Tomorrow's Stage - Stage 15
"The Queen Stage" or La Taperena -
Lezat-sur-Leze - St. Lary Soulan - 205 km
The riders will find exactly how much they left in the tank on this most
difficult stage of the Tour. This one is the thumper, and it falls on
the 10th Anniversary of the death of Lance's former teammate, Fabio
Casartelli, who died as a result of injuries in a crash during the Tour.
Between the toughness of this stage - over 16,000 feet of vertical
including a Cat2 climb, then four Cat 1 climbs and the Hors Categorie
Pl-d'Adet finishing climb - and the inspiration that Armstrong normally
finds from the memory of his friend, look for the fireworks to fly.
Wreckage and failed dreams will litter the roadways tomorrow.

-- 

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